1. Field of the Invention
Due to an ever growing shortage of conventional energy sources, there is an increasingly intense interest in harnessing solar energy. A limiting factor in the utilization of solar energy is the high cost of energy converters such as photovoltaic cells. Our invention provides a low cost means for achieving affordable solar energy by greatly reducing the cost of solar concentrators which increase (concentrate) the density of solar energy incident on the solar energy converter. For example, for the purpose of generating electricity, a large area of expensive solar cells may be replaced by a small area of high-grade photovoltaic solar cells operating in conjunction with the inexpensive intelligent mini-optics of our invention. Thus our invention can contribute to the goal of achieving environmentally clean energy on a large enough scale to be competitive with conventional energy sources.
Our invention is less expensive than conventional solar concentrators for two reasons. First due to miniaturization, the amount of material needed for the optical system is much less. Second, because our mini-optical solar concentrator is light-weight and flexible, it can easily be attached to existing structures. This is a great economic advantage over all existing solar concentrators which require the construction of a separate structure to support and orient them to intercept and properly reflect sunlight. Such separate structures must be able to survive gusts, windstorms, earthquakes, etc. The instant invention utilizes existing structures which are already capable of withstanding such inclement vicissitudes of nature.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many prior art patents that deal with twisting balls (gyricon) displays or separable balls displays. Electric or magnetic fields are used to orient or move these polarized or charged balls. To our knowledge none of the prior art utilizes the balls to optically concentrate (focus) light as in our invention. Furthermore the prior art neither teaches nor anticipates our application of the conversion of solar energy to electricity or any other form of energy. In one embodiment our invention incorporates balls with a shiny planar reflecting surface such as a metallic coating to give a high coefficient of reflectance. When the prior art refers to superior reflectance characteristics, they mean this in the context of displays with bi-colored balls e.g. black and white; or separable colored balls. In fact, the gyricon and separable ball prior art do not teach the focusing of light in any capacity. These verities are evident from an examination of the prior art. A large representative sample of the prior art will now be enumerated and described. This together with the references contained therein constitutes a comprehensive compendium of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,332 issued to J. M. Crowley on May 19, 1998 deals with gyricon bi-colored balls whose reflectance is comparable with white paper. The object is to produce a monolayer gyricon display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,783 issued to J. M. Crowley on Sep. 15, 1998 deals with gyricon bi-colored balls “having superior reflectance characteristics comparing favorably with those of white paper.” Again the objective is a display application.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,805 issued to J. M. Crowley on Jun. 22, 1999 utilizes two sets of gyricon bi-colored balls “having superior reflectance characteristics comparing favorably with those of white paper” for display purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,091 issued to N. K. Sheridon and J. M. Crowley on Apr. 25, 2000 utilizes gyricon bi-colored cylinders. Again the objective is a display application.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,621 issued to E. Kishi, T. Yagi and T. Ikeda on Jun. 6, 2000 utilizes sets of different mono-colored polarized balls which are separable for a display device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,531 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Aug. 1, 2000 teaches a method for making magnetized elements (balls or cylinders) for a gyricon display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,588 issued to J. M. Jacobson on Sep. 19, 2000 describes a display device which uses mono-colored elements that are electronically addressable to change the pattern of the display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,153 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Jan. 16, 2001 teaches apparatus for the purpose of a gyricon display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,890 B1 issued to D. H. Levy and J.-P. F. Cherry on Feb. 27, 2001 is for a changeable tattoo display using magnetic or electric fields to manipulate particles in the display.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,211,998 B1 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Apr. 3, 2001 teaches a method of addressing a display by a combination of magnetic and electric means.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,707 B1 issued to N. K. Sheridon on Jul. 17, 2001 has a similar teaching for a gyricon display.
A large number of prior art devices have been described, all of which are directed at addressing and changing the pattern of a display device. While there are other such prior art teachings, none of them teaches or anticipates our invention.